[Article] Majapahit capital may be larger than previously believed.

01/07/2011 | The Jakarta Post | Indra Harsaputra, Mojokerto

A recent archeological find in Puri village, Mojokerto regency, East Java, thought to date from the ancient Majapahit empire indicates that the capital of the empire may have been larger than a municipality in Jakarta.
Lead archeologist from the Indonesian Ancient Relics Conservation Bureau (BP3), Danang Wahyu Putro, said this hypothesis was supported by the fact that the new find was located 12 kilometers from Trowulan village, believed to be the center of the Majapahit town.
“Some academics have concluded that the capital spanned 99 square kilometers,” he said, saying this evidence may prove that the capital was larger than this, only a little less than the size of West Jakarta and almost twice the size of Central Jakarta.
Preliminary studies of the 196-square-meter find and several relics found in the vicinity point to the site being built toward the end of the Majapahit empire in the 15th century.
A surviving ancient script, the Negarakertagama, indicates that Majapahit may have been to be the largest empire in the region, with confederation states comprising the current territory of Indonesia and several neighboring countries.
The early concept of Indonesia by the country’s founding fathers were said to be based on Majapahit’s past glory, despite the fact that the country comprised areas colonized by the Dutch.
A complete historical reconstruction of the ancient capital has proven difficult, with archeological sites scattered across more than 100 square kilometers around Trowulan.
At the latest find in Puri village, archeologists found ceramics and porcelain jugs as well as earthenware from the Ming dynasty. The earthenware bore the Pataka Surya Majapahit, the Majapahit empire’s eight-pointed star regalia.
“We can’t concluded whether it was a royal residence or an housing area for commoners,” Danang said, despite the fact that the relics at the new dig were similar to earlier findings in Trowulan.

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[Article] Volcanic Ash a Threat to Borobudur.

October 29, 2010 | The Jakarta Globe | by Associated Press

A worker dusting volcanic ash off a statue at Borobudur temple. Volcanic ash is threatening one of Indonesia's most popular tourist attractions, officials said on Friday. (Antara Photo)

Yogyakarta. Volcanic ash that has fallen like heavy rain onto a 9th-century temple complex is threatening one of Indonesia's most popular tourist attractions, officials said Friday.
Parts of the famed Borobudur temples have been closed to the public so workers can clean off the blanket of white ash from Mount Merapi, which began erupting Tuesday.
Antiquities experts are concerned the acidic soot will speed the decay of the stones, said Marsis Sutopo, head of the temple conservation office.
Visitors can still enter the outside yard to the temples but won't be able to go inside the gates until at least next week, officials said. A Mahakarya Borobudur traditional dance performance will go on as scheduled Saturday.

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[Article] Can a nation afford its own treasure?

05/11/2010 | The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Dina Indrasafitri

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Middle Eastern traders carrying swords with golden hilts sailed a ship filled with goods such as intricately carved ceramics and glimmering green glass wares from the Eastern Mediterranean. 

Alas, the ship, along with the hundreds of thousands of trade wares, sank in the waters of the archipelago when making its way to the Kalingga kingdom in Central Java.

So went one scenario suggested by Adi Agung Tirtamarta, the CEO of one of the private companies involved in the excavation of over 270,000 artifacts from a sunken ship about 90 miles North West from the city of Cirebon, West Java.

Another scenario suggested that Middle Eastern traders had stopped by in India and China to pick up goods before crossing the Molucca strait and met their final fate in the sea, he said.

Romantic as the tale seemed, the story of its finding, up to the recent auction, which attracted no bidders in Jakarta, had been less so, for it revealed that Indonesia’s sunken treasures might be too costly to handle alone.

Local fishermen were the first to discover the Cirebon wreck, which came to rest more than 50 meters below sea level. They then sold the position to PT Paradigma Putra Sejahtera-Adi Agung’s company.

What is telling is that they did not report the find to the local authorities.

“Perhaps they thought reporting to companies wouldn’t get them any compensation, so they asked the government what companies work in the excavation of sunken cargo from ship wrecks,” Adi Agung said.

The company proposed to the government its survey and excavation plan, which was issued in February 2004. The recovery process, completed in October 2005, took 18 months.

According to the artifacts’ catalogue, the majority of the ceramics found at the wreck were produced during the Five Dynasties in China’s Zhejiang Province, where an early form of porcelain called the Yue ware were produced.

History enthusiasts protested the government’s plan to auction some of the discovered artifacts.

Even the Cirebon Kasepuhan palace urged the government to cancel the auction and preserve the goods for the sake of the nation’s culture. A protester attending the auction, which took place last week, angrily denounced the process.

However, the National Committee of Excavation and Utilization of Precious  Artifacts from Sunken Ships (Pannas BMKT) — a newly formed entity established in 2007 by Presidential Decree — waived off the notion that the country is auctioning away its heritage.

“To be fair, the ceramics found here do not contain Indonesian culture. The ship was passing by, and it sank. Those are all Chinese ceramics,” Culture and Tourism Minister, Jero Wacik, who is also deputy chairman of Pannas BMKT, said during the auction.

He added the state had kept over 970 pieces for the sake of historical collection. The pieces were chosen due to their uniqueness. “We have an archeological team to decide whether an item is unique or not, if a piece was one of a kind, then it would be taken by the state,” he said.

The remaining 271,000 pieces are to be auctioned, with the proceeds being halved between the excavation companies and the government.

“The money [from the auction] will be used for public good,” Jero said.

Sudirman Saad, Pannas BMKT’s secretary-general, said the artifacts that are to be preserved by the state were being kept in a government warehouse in Cileungsi, West Java, while the rest were kept in a privately-owned warehouse in Pamulang, South Jakarta.

Despite the safekeeping for culture’s sake, the government had not yet found or built a museum to store the artifacts.

Jero said the cost to build a maritime museum might be too high for the project to be feasible. “We have calculated the cost … about Rp 400 billion [US$44 million], but I don’t think we can ask that from the state budget right now,” he said.

He added the process of surveying and recovering sunken treasures was too costly for the state to handle.

The auction attracted zero bidders, but the government claimed it was a step forward.

Fadel Muhammad, the maritime affairs and fisheries minister, said that during the Soeharto era many underwater artifacts were stolen and sold in auctions without the state given a share of the money.

“With [auctions] happening, what is important is the process is transparent. We are not like we were in the past …” he said.

[Article] Megalithic site found in South Sumatra

02/17/2010  |  The Archipelago

PALEMBANG, South Sumatra: A megalithic settlement has recently been unearthed at Skendal village, 10 kilometers from the town of Pagaralam in South Sumatra.
Irfan Wintarto, an official at the Lahat Culture and Tourism Agency's Historical and Archeological Preservation Department, said local residents had discovered around 36 types of rocks on a 150-by-300-meter plot in the middle of a 2-hectare coffee plantation. The site is currently being investigated by the Archeological Region Conservation and Heritage Center (BPPP).
"The findings are believed to date back to around 5,000 B.C.," Irfan said.
"The types of rocks and megaliths found are quite diverse."
Among the items are a mortar and a 1-by-1.3-meter relief showing a woman riding an elephant with two children, and people being attacked by crocodiles and large snakes, as well as several altars believed to have been used for offerings. - JP

Source: The Jakarta Post [see the article].

Cambodia reports clash with Thai troops on border [The Jakarta Post]

Sopheng Cheang ,  Associated Press ,  Phnom Penh   |  Sun, 01/24/2010

Cambodian troops clashed Sunday with Thai soldiers near a temple that lies along a disputed part of their border and has been the scene of several deadly skirmishes in recent years, Cambodian military officials said.
Lt. Gen. Chea Tara, deputy armed forces commander and field commander for the area, said Cambodia suffered no casualties in the fighting in northern Cambodia, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) east of Preah Vihear temple. He said the fighting began when Thai troops intruded into Cambodian territory.
Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Chhum Socheach said there were two firefights lasting about five minutes each. He could not say if Thai forces suffered any casualties.
Thai military authorities could not immediately be reached for confirmation of the fighting in an area.
The Cambodian officers said the area was calm after the fighting, but that both countries were on alert.
The area has been a flashpoint since 2008, when Thai nationalists protested Cambodian efforts to have the 11th century Preah Vihear temple named a U.N. World Heritage site. They claimed the move could invalidate Thai claims to small parcels of nearby jungle area.
In 1962, the World Court awarded the temple and the land it is on to Cambodia, but sovereignty over adjacent areas has never been clearly resolved.
The issue is closely linked to Thailand's domestic politics because the 2008 protests about the temple were led by the People's Alliance for Democracy, a group which was seeking to unseat the Thai government then in power because of its links to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin was ousted by a 2006 military coup after being accused of corruption and disrespecting constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The alliance raised the issue to stir up nationalist sentiment and attract support.
The furor caused both Thailand and Cambodia to reinforce their military positions in the area, and tensions have broken out into fighting on several occasions, leading to several deaths.
Relations between the two countries plunged further in November last year, when Cambodia named Thaksin an adviser on economic affairs. The appointment, and subsequent visits by Thaksin, set off a diplomatic row in which the two countries recalled their ambassadors. A Thai court in 2008 sentenced Thaksin in absentia to two years in prison on a corruption charge.
Cambodia has refused to extradite Thaksin. 

Lieutenant General Chea Tara, deputy armed forces commander and field commander for the area, said Cambodia suffered no casualties in the fighting on Sunday, about 12 miles (20 kilometres) east of Preah Vihear temple. -- PHOTO: REUTERS [Article: Cambodia, Thai troops clash - AP/ via Straits Times]

Pour plus d'informations, voir, entre autres, les articles suivants :

- Cambodia, Thai troops clash [AP/via Straits Time] 

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA'S military says its troops have clashed briefly with Thai soldiers along a disputed border area. (...);

- Khmer and Thai troops clash at border near temple [By Deutsche Presse Agentur / via The Nation]

Phnom Penh - Cambodian and Thai soldiers exchanged fire early Sunday 20 kilometres from a disputed ancient temple site on Cambodia's northern border, a Defence Ministry spokesman said. (...) ;

- Thai Army Rangers clash with Cambodian troops near Preah Vihear temple [MCOT News]

SI SA KET, Jan 24 (TNA) -- Thai Army Rangers clashed early Sunday with a unit of Cambodian soldiers near the disputed 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, a senior Thai army officer said. No casualties were reported. (...) .

Un musée moderne pour une nouvelle perspective de l'archéologie.

Putting Trowulan into perspective
Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post | 01/07/2010

Raffles dubbed it the pride of Java, archeologists call it the nation’s historical identity, yet the authorities often only see it as a mere tourism commodity.
Now, after heated controversy over the construction of the Majapahit Information Center in the country’s largest archaeological site, Trowulan, one architect is offering a more careful solution.
Think outside the box. This will not be a four-walled museum where glass-boxed artifacts are the only things visitors will see.
The promised Trowulan open museum will allow a bird’s-eye perspective through which one can marvel at the scale and ingenuity of the ancient Majapahit city. A recent architectural design competition chose the concept offered by Jakarta-based architect Yori Antar, a set of knock-down structural modules standing on a traditional foundation that has long in use in use in the country.
“It’s a project that requires more sensitivity. We need to set aside our egos and build not an architectural piece, but instead put a semi-permanent installation to allow visitors to observe the site,” Yori says.
Building a museum atop an archaeological site is a tricky business, especially when it involves a top-grade site where one can find traces of the past even at a depth of several inches.
“The umpak foundation that has been long used in our traditional structures is suitable not just in this case. It doesn’t require digging deep into the ground, risking damage to the historical site, yet it provides the much-needed load transfer,” Yori adds.
“For me, even a modern structure can synergize with an ancient archaeological site.”

 

Winning concept: The promised Trowulan open museum will allow a bird’s-eye perspective through which one can marvel at the scale and ingenuity of the ancient Majapahit. Courtesy of Han Awal and PartnersWinning concept: The promised Trowulan open museum will allow a bird’s-eye perspective through which one can marvel at the scale and ingenuity of the ancient Majapahit. (Courtesy of Han Awal and Partners)

 Trying to avoid merely copying the terracotta architecture of Majapahit, Yori’s team – comprising architects Adi Purnomo, Danny Witjaksono and several others from the architectural firm Han Awal and Partners – chose to create viewing spaces in between the classic modern joint-and-strut system based on the excavation modules.
“It’ll be a purely structural work constructed as light as possible with perhaps a polycarbonate roof to shelter the visitors’ path,” Yori says.

The basic concept of the design is to build a sheltered space where it is needed, and deconstruct it and move it elsewhere when the site requires further archaeological excavation.
“It’s practical and can be easily constructed and moved around according to what’s needed,” says Bambang Eryudhawan, a member of the jury for the selection competition.
“It’s kind of urgent to start building the structure to protect the open brick-structure sites.”
He adds a master plan designed by Semarang-based architect Andi Siswanto will complement the open museum, which is scheduled to be built after an additional site outside the ancient one is finished.
It is hoped Yori’s design, Back to the Future, will be able to shelter several spots in Trowulan that have been dug open and damaged due to the reckless construction of the initial Majapahit Information Center begun last year.
It was also the controversial project that shined the spotlight back again on a historical site dating back to the 13th century. It was an issue the public had wrongfully blamed solely on architect Baskoro Tedjo, who was appointed to develop the initial design.

Led by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, last year’s controversy over the construction of a museum in Trowulan actually shed a light on how the authorities were still trapped inside the conventional paradigm of revitalizing an archaeological site through tourism-generated economy.
There’s nothing wrong with tourism. It has been one of the most common ways to put traces of the past into today’s living activities.
But digging concrete foundation deep into a ground that hides valuable artifacts and hoping to create a landmark on top of it is far from being wise. This is not Bilbao. Trowulan needs more than a mere grand structure to reveal its grace and help boost the local economy.
By category, the remnants of the Majapahit kingdom scattered over a 100-square-kilometer site are different from other archaeological sites in the country. They consist not of grander monuments like Borobudur, but instead something greater than that: traces of an ancient city. Despite earlier findings by Raffles in the 19th century, it was not until the late 1970s that attention poured onto the small town, a three-hour drive from Surabaya. A series of excavations revealed coins, pottery, Chinese ceramics, canals, bones and wells. All were proof of the massive scale of the settlement, an actual urban heritage that could portray part of the civilization that existed centuries before modern life.
Mentioned in Negarakertagama, an ancient script from the 14th century by Prapanca, the Trowulan compound is more than just a royal palace. Though the center of the complex is the red-brick palace, the overall heritage consists of a set of settlements buried under the volcanic debris of Mount Kelud.

Several landmarks that have been fully excavated are the Segaran Pool, Tikus Temple, the palace gate Bajang Ratu and the compound gate Wringin Lawang. Remains of brick floors and walls of houses, homes that already had proper wells and drains, are found outside the palace compound.
“We can learn a lot from what is left. Look at how they built brick by brick and applied a system of nailing and locking the structure,” Yori points out. “This is a very valuable heritage.”
Socio-politically, Majapahit and its remains are more than just ancient physical temples. The ancient kingdom founded by Raden Wijaya laid the foundation for the concept of Nusantara, a state-like entity that once stretched over an area more vast than modern-day Indonesia.

Yet romanticizing a glorious past is not what is needed. Locals living in and around Trowulan need more than just memories and flocks of tourists gazing at their ancestral masterpiece.
The Trowulan open museum is perhaps just a way to reopen the discussion. How can we put the past in the future for good?

Archeologists explore kingdom site.

               Archeologists from the Trowulan prehistoric legacy conservation agency (BP3) in Mojokerto(1) have begun surveying a newly discovered site in Malang(2) believed to be the remains of the lost kingdom of Kanjuruhan. A team of archeologists have started their excavation activities by using a grid system to map out the buried site, which was believed to have been lost around 1,300 years ago. Team chairman Kuswanto said the excavation is scheduled for four days, finishing Saturday.

- "We will first see the content and then will decide on what we should do with the historical finding," Kuswanto said.

A pile of five layers of red bricks, with each brick measuring 22X12X9 centimeter, was seen buried on the site, which had initially been developed into a residential complex. Archeologist Dwi Cahyono of the Malang State University said the layers could indicate that the site was the center of the Kanjuruhan Kingdom, believed to have been in existence since the 6th century.

- "The indication can be seen from the floor, which was made of bricks," Dwi said.

Such a floor was believed to be parts of the residential buildings of noble families in the past, he said. He added that before the 15th century, the Kanjuruhan Kingdom was still an autonomous region.

Later, as the pressure from the Mataram Kingdom under the rule of King Gajayana increased, it fell under the authority of the Mataram Kingdom.

- "The site, which was found on Jl. Dinoyo, is believed to have been the center of the Kanjuruhan Kingdom before it received pressure from the Mataram kingdom," Dwi said.

He said other supporting indications included the location of the site, which was near a river.

In the past, the center of a kingdom had always been built near a water resource, in this case the Metro and Brantas Rivers in the region.

Three months ago, workers at a construction site, 30 meters from Brantas River, found the layers of the bricks as they were starting construction to build a residential complex in the area.

Apart from the bricks, they also found pieces of earthenware.

The finding convinced archeologists that the Dinoyo and neighboring Tlogomas area were located on the site of a former center of civilization during the Kanjuruhan era.

Other discoveries previously made in the site included a drainage system under the Dinoyo market. A similar drainage ditch was also found later in a site less then a kilometer away from the market. These exclude other findings including a number of lingga and yoni as well as patirtan (holy water resources). Dwi said that the ancient brick foundation suggested the social condition of the surrounding area in the past, which was likely where the wealthy community lived.

- "People of ordinary social status would not use brick for their houses," he said, "They might just leave the soil to be the floor of their homes."

Dwi expressed hope that Malang municipal administration's relevant agencies would seriously follow up the finding, especially because it was located in a commercial area.

- "Otherwise, they will just destroy the historical site."

A similar site was found once in the Sarana Tidar Indah region, but it was later destroyed and turned into a housing complex due to a lack of serious handling from the city administration.

"If the finding leads to a bigger one, then the location must be excavated," Dwi said.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana , THE JAKARTA POST , MALANG | Fri, 10/30/2009 1:39 PM | National

(1) Mojokerto: Java Est, sud-ouest de Surabaya (capitale provinciale), Indonésie.

(2) Malang: Java-Est, Indonésie.